


Puerile

by Harukami



Category: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-26
Updated: 2011-06-26
Packaged: 2017-10-20 18:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harukami/pseuds/Harukami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he must love and be loved by the time he's twenty-one... and the movie spans about a year, and Lumiere says they've been under the curse for ten years...</p><p>Originally posted to LJ on Dec. 9th, 2004.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puerile

"Prince!" Cogsworth exclaimed, broad fingers splayed on his rounded belly as he caught his breath, finding the young prince at play behind his parents' empty thrones. The King and Queen had been killed some months earlier in a carriage accident and the prince had been hard to find since, secluding himself away from everyone with his toys and his wooden sword that he'd hit the furniture with before it got too heavy for his ten-year-old arms.

Not that he'd been much much _happier_ when his parents had been alive -- he'd always insisted that since they didn't love him, he wouldn't love them. Of course they _had_ loved him, Cogsworth was sure of that, as any red-blooded parent would do, they were just terrible busy people, and it hardly behooved the prince to be quite so angry about their absence, or their death.

But one way or the other, the prince was spending more time alone, rejecting the companionship of the servants even more than he had previously. Even Babette, one of the maids and close to his age at 15, couldn't draw him out. He'd throw his toys, and once even hit the poor girl, and after that, she refused to even clean his room.

The prince scowled up at him, nose wrinkled, expression displeased. "What?"

Cogsworth cleared his throat. "Your highness, there is an old woman at the door."

For a long moment, the prince seemed to consider this. Finally, he scowled. "So?"

"So you may wish to go see her," Cogsworth said in a tone he hoped would be less of a suggestion and more of a command. "She says she has something for you. A gift or some such."

"I don't want to see her," the prince said, sulkily. "Whatever she has I could buy with my own money easily anyway. And besides, old people are ugly."

"Your highness," Cogsworth said, his tone edged with irritation. "She is waiting at the door."

The prince flung himself to his feet, giving Cogsworth a nasty glare. "Fine," he said, terribly petulant. "I'll just go send her on her way!"

Cogsworth shook his head to himself, sighing as he watched the prince stomp off, towards the great entryway. Lumiere said the prince was lonely and unloved. "The poor boy lost his parents just last year, and he's been here with no other boys his age to play with," Lumiere had said, sympathetically. "Have a heart, Cogsworth. If we and the rest of his household treat him well, I'm sure he'll be cheerful in no time."

Personally, Cogsworth would believe _that_ when he saw it.


End file.
